Republicans say their disaffected base can be mobilized for the Nov elections by emphasizing the security pitfalls of a Democrat-controlled Congress. The question for hard-core Republicans is do they want the House to be led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, "who said less than a year after 9/11 'I don't really consider ourselves at war,'" Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman yesterday told the annual summer gathering of the Republican National Committee. "As foreign jihadists call into the U S, do we use NSA technology to stop sleeper cells before they hit us?" Mr. Mehlman asked. "Or do we surrender the use of this technology, as Nancy Pelosi and [Democratic National Committee Chairman] Howard Dean would have us do?" From their arrival on Wednesday, the party members' mood has seemed upbeat, despite the disgust many of them say Republican voters feel over the spending, immigration policy and the handling of the Iraq war by the Republican White House and Congress... http://www.washingtontimes.com

Israeli warplanes destroyed four key bridges on Lebanon's last untouched highway yesterday, severing the country's final major connection to Syria and deepening its isolation. Hezbollah launched its deepest rocket strike inside Israel to date, hitting near a town 50 miles south of the Lebanese border, police said. At least 190 rockets rained down on other towns, killing four civilians, three of them Arabs. Aircraft on a mission to destroy weapons caches hit a refrigerated warehouse where farm workers were loading vegetables, killing at least 28 near the Lebanon-Syria border. At the United Nations in New York, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said the United States and France have "come a long way" in negotiating a Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate end to Middle East hostilities. U.N. officials said negotiators were ready to work through the weekend and hoped to have an agreement by early next week. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060805-120943-4554r.htm

The state Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Vermont courts -- not Virginia's -- have exclusive jurisdiction over a child-custody case involving a former lesbian couple. The unanimous ruling conflicts with a series of decisions in Virginia, where courts ruled the state's laws against homosexual "marriage" controlled the case. Justice John Dooley wrote that Vermont civil union laws govern the women's 2003 separation and subsequent child-custody disagreement because they were legally joined in a civil union there in 2000. "This is a straightforward interstate jurisdictional dispute over custody, and the governing law fully supports the Vermont court's decision to exercise jurisdiction and refuse to follow the conflicting Virginia visitation order," Justice Dooley wrote. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060804-110109-4326r.htm

Israeli aircraft struck deep into Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 33 Syrian Kurdish farm workers and destroying four bridges on a key aid route leading north from Beirut.The attack on the farm workers, who were loading peaches and plums on to trucks at Qaa in the north of the Beka'a valley, was one of the single deadliest strikes of the war.It came as Hizbullah demonstrated that its ability to strike at Israel remained largely intact, by firing more than 200 rockets at northern towns and villages, killing three civilians and injuring dozens. Two rockets landed deeper in Israel than any previously, hitting near the city of Hadera, 50 miles from the border.In Qaa, the bodies of the dead were laid in a row at the scene of the bombing. Some were covered with blankets, others lay in the clothes in which they died. Baskets and fruit were strewn around them. Another 20 people were wounded and taken to hospital across the nearby border into Syria....http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1837846,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

The premiere of Oliver Stone's movie about 9/11, the studio bosses had promised, would be low-profile: a restrained affair, designed to show sensitivity towards the tragedy.Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have passed that message to throngs of police officers, twitchy security men, limousine drivers and clipboard-wielding publicists, or even Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York - all of whom colonised half a Manhattan block for the launch of a film which many had been awaiting with queasiness."If you take a look at the book of Revelations ..." shouted the obligatory placard-wielding evangelist from the sidewalk. But all the attention was on the red carpet, which the film's stars, including Nicolas Cage and Maggie Gyllenhaal, shared with police officers and firefighters caught up in the events....http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,,1837856,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

With much of Israel's northern population huddling in underground shelters and Hezbollah proving more resilient than Israeli leaders had publicly predicted, Israel's news media, intellectual elite and public are starting to question the judgment of the country's political and military leadership.After an extraordinary national surge of unanimity during the first days of the conflict, public support is starting to fray, with some of the nation's most influential voices criticizing political leaders and Israel Defense Forces generals for military strategies they say have failed to protect Israeli citizens.They blame Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz for trying to lull citizens into a false sense of security, fault generals for relying too heavily on air power to destroy Hezbollah rocket launchers, and worry that Israeli troops may not have been prepared to defeat a force far tougher than Palestinian fighters....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401763_pf.html